State House challenger could pull off major upset

Clelland leads Dorworth by 37 votes

Just a few dozen votes could mean a major political upset for an incumbent state representative in District 29.

Rep. Chris Dorworth, of Lake Mary, is in danger of losing his seat to Democratic challenger Mike Clelland, a retired firefighter and local attorney.

The race appears headed for a recount -- state law requires a recount if the margin of victory is less than one half of one percent.

All absentee ballots, early votes and Election Day ballots have been counted.

Currently, the race stands at 36,749 votes for Clelland and 36,712 votes for Dorworth.

Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel said that the elections board will meet Thursday afternoon to count provisional ballots in Seminole County, and then they'll run those results and determine if it's still within the margin for a recount.

"From now until 2 o'clock Thursday, our staff is going to be going through those provisional ballots to see which ones were cast by people eligible to cast in their precinct yesterday," said Ertel.

Ertel said there could be as many as 600 provisional ballots that workers will be reviewing.

A recount time, he says, would be determined by the board after Thursday's meeting. The recount would happen Sunday or Monday.

A Dorworth loss would have huge ramifications in the House. He was already picked to serve as majority leader starting in November, then moving into the speaker's office in two years.

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